The Long and winding roads of Artvin. Who has visited this area?

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Middle_East/Turkey/Black_Sea/Artvin/photo921057.htm

Very nice post, Kurt!

Gül Camii, formerly the Church of St. Theodosia. It is said to get its name, the Rose Mosque, because when the Ottoman soldiers entered it following the capture of the city on May 29, 1453, it was still decorated with the roses put there by the Christian Byzantine defenders of the city to mark the feast day of St. Theodosia.

Guthaben is German for "to have a credit balance"

According to a recent study aiming to monitor changes in values and attitudes of societies, Turkey is a country lacking self-confidence where people´s sense of happiness and material fulfillment is on the rise. The World Values Survey Association found that Turkey is distrustful of foreigners. “Active participation in politics and tolerance toward marginal groups were low. Among Turkish respondents, 25 percent viewed people unfavorably who speak a language other than Turkish. The number of people who attributed importance to freedom of expression was in decline.” The study was conducted as part of the Turkey portion of the ‘European and World Values Survey´. The survey was designed to enable a cross-national, cross-cultural comparison of values and norms on a wide variety of topics and to monitor changes in values and attitudes across the globe. This data collection contains survey data from the four waves of the World Values Surveys and European Values Surveys, carried out in 1981-1984, 1990-1993, 1995-1997, and 1999-2004. The surveys were organized by a network of social scientists.

Turkey also participated in this project in 1990. Subsequent surveys were conducted in 1996, 1997, 2000 and 2001 respectively. In late 2007 the ‘Turkish Values Survey´ was carried out through face-to-face meetings with 1,579 people in 41 cities. A parallel study called the ‘Elites Survey´ was conducted in which researchers held 226 meetings with media elites and 148 meetings with parliamentarians. Professor Yılmaz Esmer from the Bahçeşehir University School of Business Administration coordinated the survey. Esmer announced the findings at the opening of the Bahçeşehir University Center for Economic and Social Studies last week. “Turkey is a country with low self-esteem. What distinguishes us from Western Europe is the great importance we attribute to religion, the outlook on relations between men and women, the role of women in society, active participation in politics and the approach to freedoms, democratic values and tolerance, as well as interpersonal distrust,” he said.
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=96014

More than half of the women in Turkey aged between 25 and 29 do not work, a recent survey by the Turkish Confederation of Employers´ Unions (TİSK) has revealed, and as many as 60 percent of women aged between 15 and 29 do not attend school.
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=95819

Chinese Handicapped Olympic Swimmer

http://pictzz.blogspot.com/2008/04/chinese-handicap-olympic-swimmer.html

Korrontzi "Panderotxoa" - live at Festival Tatihou

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owDp3LJdCyA

Italian outrage over Roma drowning photos


http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_967

quite an insight, i.e. video what is happening right now in Sulukule


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2008/jul/22/sulukule





http://www.flickr.com/photos/petit1ze/1156716124/sizes/o/

Sultan Suleyman´s monument in Hungary




The Battle of Szigetvár took place in the fortress of this city in the year 1566 and was one of the most relevant battles in the history of this region of Hungary. This battle was fought by the invading Ottoman Empire, leaded by Suleiman the Magnificent, and the army of the Habsburg Monarchy leaded by the Croatian Nikola Subic Zrinski.

In this battle, the Ottoman Empire forces counted with about 92,000 men, while the army of the Habsburg Monarchy had approximately 2300 soldiers. Despite of this difference, the army of Zrinski could maintain the Ottoman Empire soldiers away from the fortress for almost a month, showing this way a clear strategic superiority.

After more than four weeks of fighting, the forces of the Ottoman Empire defeated the army of the Habsburg Monarchy. When this happened, the Ottoman forces had lost about 25,000 men, among who there was their leader Suleyman the Magnificent. Taking into account the amount of soldiers the defenders had, this was a victory from the point of view of strategy and strength for them.

Nowadays, this battle is still part of the culture and collective identity of the citizens of Szigetvár. It might be also interesting to know that this battle gave birth to a famous epic poem, called the Peril of Sziget, and which was one of the first epics ever written in Hungarian.

http://www.eurotomic.com/hungary/the-fortress-and-battle-of-szigetvar.php


Peril of Sziget
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peril_of_Sziget

Nikola Subic Zrinski
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Oton_Ivekovic%2C_Nikola_Subic_Zrinski.jpg